Leahy's constitutional crises

David Limbaugh:

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To Leahy it was a constitutional crisis for voters to elect Republicans to power in the executive and legislative branches. But what's his excuse now, with Democrats in control of the legislative branch? Instead of admitting he has policy differences with President Bush, he says Bush is abusing the Constitution.

I'd like Leahy to cite just one case where President Bush has said that he can overrule the law, the courts or congressional actions. Of course Bush believes the executive branch doesn't have to bend over in rank subordination to the legislative branch, and the Constitution happens to be on Bush's side on this matter. If Bush were the autocratic bully Leahy and others say he is, would he not have wielded the veto pen a little more often?

When Leahy talks about Bush being "a law unto himself," he's usually talking about the NSA surveillance program. But with this program, Bush doesn't claim he can violate or "overrule" the law. He just has a different view of the law and his inherent constitutional authority in this area. He takes the position that the law permits the government to engage in warrantless wiretaps of conversations of suspected terrorists when one party to the conversation is not in the United States.

But Leahy has been playing fast and loose with the facts and law on the NSA surveillance program almost since its inception. Remember when he (and many other Democrats) intentionally mischaracterized the program as domestic spying? Leahy went as far as to say, preposterously, "My concern is for peaceful Quakers who are being spied upon and other law-abiding Americans and babies and nuns who are placed on terrorist watch lists."

Why in the world, other than to damage Bush at the expense of the national interest, would Leahy aid and comfort the Al Qaeda propaganda machine by saying Bush is spying on little old ladies in the United States instead of suspected international terrorists? Leahy certainly isn't doing it to vindicate the Constitution. It's just a wild guess, but I doubt that many Quakers are on the average Jihadist's Rolodex.

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It is ironic that a guy who released classified information for political purposes would be trying to lecture on this issue. He is not someone to be trusted with national security information yet he is holding US intelligence hostage to his request for information he is not entitled to. His invalid concerns about the privacy rights of terrorist is a clear and present danger to this countries ability to collect intelligence on the enemy's next attack on this country. If we are unable to stop them, he will be primarily responsible.